Should I road-trip it or not? (driveline issue)

[otter]

I asked this locally, but it occurred to me to ask a wider audience:

Point #1: My Spider ('81, Turbo, stock, ~50k, etc.) has a fairly significant driveline vibration (vertical shake) at around 55mph. This is most likely due to the worn out driveshaft support bearing and Guibo, though there is some rust-through near one of the attachment points for the driveshaft support bracket and this may be a factor, as well, since even with a good bearing the whole thing isn't as well-supported as it ought to be. I've got a new Guibo and bearing with carrier,etc. but have not had or made time to replace it yet, or else get the metalwork done on the floor pan and have whoever tears it all apart do it at the same time (I can't do welding.)

Point #2: There is a weekend of vintage racing at Road America this weekend, and I'm planning on spending Saturday there. I would love to drive the Fiat instead of my Vanilla Beigemobile, since it'll be a perfect day for it. But I am not sure about driving from Chicago to Road America and back (with a possible detour to Madison to pick up some parts for a different car) with the driveline shake, which appeared a few weeks or so ago. I've dealt with it so far by just avoiding the 55-60mph range as much as possible (it's tolerable at ~30mph.)

Last time I looked (a few weeks ago, before the shake appeared) the Guibo looked OK. Admittedly, I do not know if 'looks OK' really means much, e.g. maybe a totally trashed Guibo 'looks OK' but falls to bits as soon as you take it out. I will take another look at the Guibo today or tomorrow. Assuming the Guibo is not about to turn into little Guibo chunks, would you drive this on a ~4 hour round trip?

[hamlet]

Well it depends on how highly you value your health. I wouldn't risk it. Have you read the stories around here about people be injured by guibo failures?

[narfire]

Not...take an hour or so and replace the donut and bearing.

When the rubber disk lets go, the drive shaft starts beating the tranny tunnel to death and if it ever jill-pokes into a solid object, say a pot-hole, you'll be leaving the back part of the drive train behind.

Not worth it man...

[Exit98]

I wouldn't

[gprice]

Or part of it will get a hold of the brake line. Don't ask how I know

[SoFlaFiat]

You're good to go, as long as you go backwards so as to avoid all the aforementioned possibilities
Seriously, like Chris said, if you have the parts in hand, swap them out and drive!

[otter]

Thanks, y'all. To be, perhaps, a little clearer, it's not the Guibo I'm particularly worried about (unless I look underneath it tonight and change my mind); it's the center support bearing. A Guibo I could change in a couple of hours, but replacing the center support....nuh-uh. That's a Saturday-afternoon job to do the whole thing. Aside from the bearing and support needing replacement (this I do know) there is the matter of its mounting to the floorpan, and the likely effect of a few hundred miles' worth of driving with a resonant shaking every time I go through ca. 50-60 mph.

[So Cal Mark]

uhh, no. You're asking for trouble and most likely you'll get what you're asking for. Broken Spiders sitting along the highway don't enhance Fiat's reputation

[Tobi]

I have pneumonia but I really want to go swimming today.
How many more people do you need to say no, don't do it.
Just do it, we always like to hear interesting road-trip story's

[otter]

OK, I got the message now I'll just envision driving it to RA again for the Runoffs in September and get the important work done before then.

[fiat218]

I agree,don't be driving it,you will end up with more problems

[JEEPER]

I think you've answered your own question. If you have to ask then your common senses are telling you HE!! no!

[baltobernie]

Replacing the support bearing requires access to a hydraulic press and the correct size dies, BUT, removal of the driveshaft is a DIY job. Just take it to a local driveshaft repair shop, along with your new bearing and support, and they'll fix you up. Might as well replace the two U-joints at this time (they're cheap), and of course the guibo. Mark the two sections of the driveshaft with a paint pen before disassembly to maintain factory balance.

[otter]

Post-weekend report:

I wasn't sure whether I had new U-joints or not; I don't, so I'll pick those up too, since there's no reason not to replace them at the same time as the Guibo and center support. I assume I will have to drain the diff when I pull the driveshaft out (is this wrong? I don't have my manuals handy, and this is my only RWD car) so might as well replace the fluid, too. I am far more familiar with my FWD cars than my Spider, even though the Spider has been with me or in my family since before I could drive. I can get access to a press at work, so that won't be a problem.

I was going to drive my Beigemobile, until a very helpful local-ish member said, "stop by my place on the way up (he's about 90 minutes away) and I'll help you replace the Guibo and center support. Couldn't pass that up! So I set out and it was doing fine - no significant vibration at 65, where the car was happy. Got about 2/3 of the way there when the car died on me. Thought it was probably just out of gas - I was going to get off at the exit about 3/4 mile ahead, and the gauge is a bit unreliable, so since the light had just gone on, I figured I had a little bit left. Nope! Fortunately since I was on the IL tollway help was nearby and with a couple of gallons I was off again. Filled up, and...it wouldn't restart. Let my smarter self take over and decided to turn around and go home once I got going again. For a while the car has had two issues that are intermittend but very annoying an occasionaly bad stumble when hot, and a tendency to sometimes die at idle and not want to restart when hot. Though the trip home featured a couple of unplanned stops, they did allow me to finally diagnose both of these problems - a bad coil wire, and water/moisture from the overflow tank bubbling/dripping out when hot and intermittently shorting out the coil wire, ignition pickup wire, or both. Fortunately I had new coil and ignition wires in the trunk, so I replaced the coil wire and dried everything off and everything was good. No dying, no stumbling. It is a huge relief to have this done, though I should have replaced this stuff already.

No more trips on the car until I've done a complete tune-up, replaced the timing belt and water pump, cleaned the radiator out, had the bad spot in the floorpan repaired, replaced Guibo/center support/u-joints, refill and adjust steering, and rebuilt the front end. Maybe I can get all this done by the Runoffs. Until then it will be the beigemobile or my old SE-R if I finish the driveline work before winter. Thanks for being voices of reason. Taking the Spider anyway this weekend meant that I did not, after all, make it to the races (pooh!) but at least I figured out the thing that was annoying me most about the car.

David

[baltobernie]

Several minor issues that you were able to fix yourself, so no biggie, right?

No, you don't need to drain either the tranny nor the diff to R&R the driveshaft.